1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet conveying apparatus having a sheet conveying path, and an image forming apparatus having the sheet conveying apparatus, such as a coping machine, a printer, and a facsimile. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technique for opening a sheet conveying path.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, image forming apparatus, each of which includes a sheet conveying apparatus having a sheet conveying path along which a sheet is conveyed, have been known. In the sheet conveying apparatus, when a sheet is jammed on the sheet conveying path, it becomes important to easily and surely remove the jammed sheet.
The sheet conveying apparatus generally has the following configuration. In order that at least one of a pair of guide portions constituting the sheet conveying path is opened, the guide portions rotate around pivot shafts provided in the guide portions as the fulcrums.
When the sheet is jammed on the sheet conveying path, a position of the jammed sheet is informed to a user, such that the user opens the guide portion where the jammed sheet exists and removes the jammed sheet.
Accordingly, it is required to ensure an operation space that is sufficient to improve visibility of the jammed sheet and remove the jammed sheet.
As such, in order to improve a jam recovery, the rotation amount of the rotation guide portion that rotates needs to be increased. However, in the case of the sheet conveying path that is provided in the apparatus, an opening space of the rotation guide portion is not large. Accordingly, an external structure of a rotation guide portion and the rotation guide portion can be configured to rotate (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-18724) or a rotation guide portion and a fixation guide portion are configured to be integrally drawn to the outside of the apparatus, thereby securing the rotation amount of the rotation guide portion.
However, even in any one of the above-described configurations, an opening space needs to be formed in order to open the rotation guide portion to the outside of the apparatus. Further, in order to secure the opening space, an occupied area that is needed to dispose the apparatus may be increased. In addition, even in any one of the above-described configurations, a size of a movable portion may be increased, which results in the complicated configuration of the apparatus, and the number of components may be increased, which results in increasing the manufacturing costs.
Further, even though the rotation amount of the rotation guide portion can be increased, in the vicinity of the rotation fulcrum of the rotation guide portion, the separation amount from a fixation guide portion is almost the same as that in the case where the rotation guide portion is not opened. Accordingly, when the jammed sheet exists on the sheet conveying path in the vicinity of the rotation fulcrum of the rotation guide portion, the jammed sheet is not viewed. As a result, a user may forget to remove the jammed sheet or the torn sheet piece may remain.